Luis Ortega’s The Angel (El Angel), based on the exploits in the 1970s of Buenos Aires serial killer Carlitos Robledo Puch, has scored the highest ever debut for a local production in local currency in Argentina.

The Orchard has secured North American rights to Luis Ortega’s “El Angel” following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. It will debut in the U.S. later this year. Reviewers in the south of France praised the film for its visual panache and compared its treatment of violence and criminality to the early work of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

Movistar +, the high-flying pay-TV division of Telefonica, one of Europe’s biggest telecoms, is powering into original film production with a project by Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (“The Others”).